Food for Thought: Bacon twists easy and scrumptious

Tuesday

Mar 25, 2008 at 12:01 AMMar 25, 2008 at 8:50 AM

This week in the food rail, an easy bacon recipe, The Dish On "CakeLove," critics weigh in on a new Wendy's fish sandwich and more.

Easy Recipe: Peppered Bacon Twists
How simple are these peppered bacon twists? So easy a 6-year-old can make them. No kidding. I put my first-grader to the challenge, and she handled them with no trouble at all.
Bacon and bread are entwined in a tasty twist that gets a kick of flavor from a light coating of brown sugar and black pepper. Baked golden and warm from the oven, these twists make a great side with any meal, even breakfast. My daughter likes them as a toast substitute for dunking into her “dippy eggs.”
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or less if desired
1 tube refrigerated bread sticks
Ready-to-serve bacon, heated as directed on package
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix brown sugar and pepper in shallow dish; set aside. Unroll dough and separate into strips. Top each dough strip with bacon slices, pressing bacon into dough. Add to sugar mixture; turn to evenly coat both sides. Twist dough strips, then place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until lightly browned. (Jennifer Mastroianni/Canton Repository)
The Dish On …
“CakeLove: How to Bake Cakes from Scratch,” by Warren Brown
Warren Brown wants you to bake your cake and eat it, too. And he wants you to conquer your fear of flour and learn to love every step of cake baking — including, of course, the step in which you present your made-from-scratch masterpiece to bedazzled, hungry-eyed family and friends. For Brown, love and baking are inseparable. After all, he abandoned an unrewarding career in law to do the work — baking cakes! — that he finds truly emotionally satisfying. Every page of “CakeLove” communicates that satisfaction, as well as Brown’s can-do approach to the art of baking. As he asserts, baking cakes isn’t a cakewalk, but it’s not rocket science, either — and getting it right isn’t nearly as hard as you think. (Stewart, Tabori & Chang)
Food Quiz
A president was criticized after saying he loved French soups. What soup was it, and which president was it?
A. Clam chowder, John F. Kennedy
B. Hamburger soup, Ronald Reagan
C. Corn chowder, Franklin D. Roosevelt
D. Chicken noodle soup, Bill Clinton
Answer is at bottom of column. (Source: www.funtrivia.com)
Critic’s Cupboard: Wendy’s Premium Fish Filet
Spatula Up: If your wallet can take the hit, the new Premium Fish Filet sandwich from Wendy’s is a knockout. The secret ingredient is panko. (If you’ve been off planet a while, you might not know that panko is Japanese-style bread crumbs, much coarser than the sawdust style we’re accustomed to seeing.) Wendy’s uses panko on its cod filet, resulting in a crispy, crunchy crust. Enrobed in the crust is a decent-sized piece of flaky cod. The only misstep is the oily, flat tartar sauce. Wendy’s fish is the best choice for dieters at 450 calories for a 6.2-ounce sandwich. Burger King’s Big Fish is 520 calories for 6.5 ounces, and the ever-shrinking McDonald’s fish sandwich is 5.5 ounces yet 470 calories, in part because of the tiny strip of American cheese on it. If you’re watching calories, ask for the sandwich without tartar sauce and shave about 100 calories. (Saimi Bergmann/Canton Repository)
Spatula down: Fast-food fish sandwiches -- in all their deep-fried, tartar saucy glory -- rate exceptionally high on my list of favorite comfort foods. So boy did my eyebrow raise when I saw the commercial for Wendy’s new panko-crusted cod sandwich. I love the ultra-crispy texture of Japanese bread crumbs, especially on fish. Unfortunately, the somewhat-greasy breading is all you taste with this sandwich. In fact, I barely tasted the fish. For $3.19 without cheese, there certainly are cheaper, tastier fish sandwich options out there. (Jennifer Mastroianni/Canton Repository)
Number to Know: 148
Calories in one serving (2 tablespoons) of Kraft ranch salad dressing. (www.calorie-count.com)
Wise to the Word
Varak (VAH-ruhk) – or vark, varakh or varaq – is a foil of pure elemental silver that is used for garnishing Indian sweets. The silver is edible, though tasteless. Large quantities of ingested elemental silver can cause argyria, but the use of varak is not considered harmful to the body, since the quantities involved in normal use are minuscule. Varak is made by pounding silver into a thin sheet a few micrometres thick. When sold, varak is backed with paper and peeled before use. It is extremely brittle and breaks into smaller pieces if touched. Varak sheets are laid or rolled over Indian sweets made from dates, nuts and various fruit and vegetable based rolls or sheet candies. (Wikipedia.org)
From The Beer Nut’s Blog
I like a good bottle of wine every once in awhile, but my passion is beer. My friend Karen is the total opposite. Given a choice, nine out of 10 times, she’d rather drink a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio than a good India pale ale. However, I recently introduced her to Dogfish Head’s Red & White, a Belgian-style wit beer aged in Pinot Noir juice and with Pinot Noir juice added. It’s one of my favorite beers, and I think it is the perfect marriage between beer and wine.
Now she wants some other suggestions. I know Allagash Brewing Company has several beers that are brewed using wine grapes, including the Victoria, which uses Chardonnay grapes and the Victor, which uses red Chancellor grapes. Are there others out there? What would you recommend? Let me know.
For more beer-related articles, visit Norman Miller’s blog at http://blogs.townonline.com/beernut.
Food Quiz Answer
B. Hamburger soup, Ronald Reagan
GateHouse News Service

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